'Ziggy Stardust': How Bowie Created the Alter Ego That Changed Rock - Rolling Stone 'Ziggy Stardust': How Bowie Created the Alter Ego That Changed Rock The Tao of Carrie Fisher: 37 Great Quotes From the... 'Ziggy Stardust': How Bowie Created the Alter Ego That Changed Rock A deep dive into the making of 1972 masterpiece 'The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars' How David Bowie invented Ziggy Stardust, the alter ego that changed music forever and sent his career into orbit. Credit: Gijsbert Hanekroot/Getty All Stories "What I did with my Ziggy Stardust was package a totally credible, plastic rock & roll singer – much better than the Monkees could ever fabricate," David Bowie later said of his definitive alter ego. "I mean, my plastic rock & roller was much more plastic than anybody's. And that was what was needed at the time." In fact, what Bowie concocted on 1972's The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars was more than just a fresh, clever concept.

Ziggy was a tight and cohesive song cycle that laid out a visionary direction for pop music, setting a new standard for rock & roll theatricality while delivering his synthetic ideal with campy sex appeal and raw power. More News David Bowie: How Ziggy Stardust Fell to Earth He made rock & roll safe for glitter gods and space oddities — but Bowie was really trying to hold on to his sanity "Listening to [Ziggy Stardust] was a bit like going to college, like the Beatles," says Soundgarden's Chris Cornell, who has covered the album's "Lady Stardust" in concert. "The songwriting is incredible ... [I] loved every single song on the album." Bowie had been building up to something like Ziggy Stardust for a while. But the root inspiration for the album's theme went deep into his past. During the mid-Sixties, Bowie had met pioneering British rocker Vince Taylor, who had recorded the 1959 classic "Brand New Cadillac" (later covered by the Clash on London Calling). After too many drugs and an emotional breakdown, Taylor had joined a cult and decided that he was an alien god on Earth.

Bowie's fascination with space travel and science fiction had already surfaced in such songs as "Space Oddity" and "Life on Mars?" but he was being drawn toward something grander in scope. "Until that time," he later said, "the attitude was 'What you see is what you get.' It seemed interesting to try to devise something different, like a musical where the artist onstage plays a part." He began developing a character based on Taylor, as well as on other eccentrics like Texas "psychobilly" singer Legendary Stardust Cowboy and Japanese designer Kansai Yamamoto. "He always described how he'd take bits and pieces from all over the place, put them in a melting pot and they'd come out being him," said producer Ken Scott. Bowie dubbed this new creation "Ziggy Stardust" (first name taken from a tailor's shop that he saw from a train). As he fleshed out the concept further, Ziggy became an omnisexual alien rock star, sent to Earth as a messenger.

Bowie's plot, loosely, was that humanity was in its final five years of existence, and Ziggy was dispatched to deliver a message of hope: He's a wild, hedonistic figure ("well-hung and snow-white tan"), but at his core communicates peace and love; he's the ultimate rock star. And in the end, he is destroyed by his own excesses and by his fans. "Ziggy is advised in a dream by the infinites to write the coming of a starman ... this amazing spaceman who will be coming down to save the Earth," Bowie explained to William S. Burroughs in a Rolling Stone interview. "Ziggy starts to believe in all this himself and thinks himself a prophet of the future starmen. He takes himself up to the incredible spiritual heights and is kept alive by his disciples. When the infinites arrive, they take bits of Ziggy to make themselves real, because in their original state they are anti-matter and cannot exist on our world. And they tear him to pieces onstage during the song 'Rock 'n' Roll Suicide.'" It made a certain amount of sense – at least as much as, say, the Who's Tommy.

But it's still unclear whether Bowie had planned Ziggy Stardust as a narrative, or if he retrofitted the story after he had the songs. "To me, three songs link together – 'Ziggy Stardust,' 'Lady Stardust' and 'Star,' because they're all about the same person – and after that, it's a bunch of songs that work together," said producer Scott. "I've heard people say it's about a guy who comes to save the world from outer space," said bassist Trevor Bolder, "but to me, it's just songs." The band Bowie had solidified during the Hunky Dory sessions – guitarist Mick Ronson, Bolder and drummer Mick Woodmansey – was living together in a communal house. Rechristened the Spiders From Mars, they went into Trident Studios in November 1971 and bashed out most of the album in 10 days (remarkably, Ziggy Stardust was largely completed before Hunky Dory was released a month later in December). "They had to get the tracks fairly quickly because David gets bored," said Scott. "If it took more than three or four takes, he'd want to move on. ...

David was the most amazing singer I've worked with; 95 percent of the vocals on the four albums I did with him as producer, they were first takes." "He made you play on a knife-edge," said Woodmansey. "You couldn't go for anything you weren't 110 percent committed to." The eventual opening track, the dramatic and ominous "Five Years," was a "kind of end-of-the-world song," said the drummer. "It had to set off the atmosphere for the album." These sessions also included the mission-statement title song and five other tracks that would make the album. But when Bowie delivered the music to RCA Records, the label said they didn't hear a single.

For once, this judgment proved wise; in response, Bowie wrote "Starman," which would be the record's breakthrough track, replacing a cover of Chuck Berry's "Around and Around." In February 1972, the band cut the new song, as well as final takes of the snarling glitter rave-up "Suffragette City" and the riveting "Rock 'n' Roll Suicide." One song recorded during the Hunky Dory sessions, "It Ain't Easy," was also added to the Ziggy lineup; it featured keyboard wizard Rick Wakeman – who said that Bowie had asked him to join the new band, but that Yes had invited him to be part of their group on the same day. Once the recording was done, Bowie turned his attention to the broader Ziggy plan. He started talking up the apocalyptic epic to the media. "He wanted to change the music industry," said Bolder. "He thought it was boring." He took the band members to the ballet and the theater, instructing them to watch the lighting instead of the performances. "That was a revelation," said Woodmansey.

"We got into the practice of creating a show, rather than just making music." Bowie spent months crafting the clothing and image for the Spiders – including his own signature orange mullet – looking to out-glam and out-shock acts like Marc Bolan and Alice Cooper. Immediately prior to the show that would debut the Ziggy material and staging, Bowie gave an interview to Melody Maker in which he announced that he was gay. But the first Ziggy Stardust tour of the U.K. landed with a thud, and when the album was released in June, it started slowly. An electrifying July performance of "Starman" on the BBC's Top of the Pops changed all that, delivering the sexually charged Ziggy in full regalia into England's homes. The album exploded, and by the summer of 1973, Bowie had five albums in the British Top 40, three of them in the Top 15. By the time he and the Spiders set off for a U.S. tour in September, it was pandemonium. Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger and Lou Reed were hanging around rehearsals. Fans were convinced the band really were space aliens.

When they stopped in Moscow, on the way to Japan, they were detained by armed guards and taken to see Red Square in a limo with blacked-out windows, for fear their appearance would incite a riot. The adulation, and the blurring of the lines between Bowie and Ziggy, began taking a toll on the singer. "At first, I just assumed that character onstage," he said. "Then everybody started to treat me as they treated Ziggy: as though I were the Next Big Thing, as though I moved masses of people. I became convinced I was a messiah. Very scary. I woke up fairly quickly." So in the summer of 1973, at the Hammersmith Odeon, with legendary documentarian D.A. Pennebaker's cameras rolling for a concert film, the singer made the stunning proclamation that this was Ziggy's final show. He confirmed in an NME interview that "from now on, I'll be concentrating on various activities that have very little to do with rock and pop." It was almost one year to the day after the Top of the Pops performance that had kicked off Ziggy-mania.

"Most rock characters that one creates usually have a short life span," Bowie explained. "I don't think they're durable album after album. Don't want them to get too cartoony." Bowie was sometimes dismissive of the Ziggy Stardust phenomenon. "Most people still want their idols and gods to be shallow, like cheap toys," he told Cameron Crowe. "Why do you think teenagers are the way they are? They run around like ants, chewing gum and flitting onto a certain style of dressing for a day; that's as deep as they wish to go. It's no surprise that Ziggy was a huge success." But Ziggy had achieved what Bowie set out to do – he altered music forever by introducing the notion of the rock star as a fearless changeling who could recast image and persona when necessary, whether the audience was ready or not. Years later, Woodmansey, the only surviving original member of the Spiders From Mars, tried to describe the experience: "You walk out into a place, and there's 20,000 people all trying to look like you," he said.

"You occasionally think, 'Hang on, I'm from Driffield!' But everyone thinks you're from Mars." David Bowie's iconic style left a mark on generations of fans. Watch his style transformation here. Singer David Bowie, influential performer of many pop alter egos, dies of cancer at 69 - Alaska Dispatch News Singer David Bowie, influential performer of many pop alter egos, dies of cancer at 69 Updated: June 24, 2016 Published January 11, 2016 David Bowie, the self-described "tasteful thief" who appropriated from and influenced glam rock, soul, disco, new wave, punk rock and haute couture, and whose edgy, androgynous alter egos invited fans to explore their own dark places, died Sunday. Bowie had turned 69 on Friday, the same day he released his latest album which was entitled "Blackstar." The cause was cancer, said a representative. With his sylphlike body, chalk-white skin, jagged teeth and eyes that appeared to be two different colors, Bowie combined sexual energy with fluid dance moves and a theatrical charisma that mesmerized male and female admirers alike.

Citing influences from Elvis Presley to Andy Warhol - not to mention the singer Edith Piaf and writers William S. Burroughs and Jean Genet - Bowie was trained in mime and fine arts, and played saxophone, guitar, harmonica and piano. A scavenger of musical and visual styles, he repackaged them in striking new formats that were all his own, in turn lending his dramatic, gender-bending aesthetic to later performers such as Prince and Lady Gaga. With "a melodic sense that's just well above anyone else in rock & roll," the singer Lou Reed once wrote, "David Bowie's contribution to rock & roll has been wit and sophistication." His output between 1969 and 1983 made up "one of the longest creative streaks in rock history," according to Rolling Stone magazine. By the height of his fame in the early 1980s, Bowie had enacted his own death repeatedly, in the form of characters and ensembles he would create, inhabit and then discard. "My policy has been that as soon as a system or process works, it's out of date," he said in a 1977 interview.

"I move on to another area." The practice, which extended to friendships and professional partnerships, could be jarring. The Spiders From Mars, his band during his glitter-rock Ziggy Stardust years, learned that they were being fired when Bowie announced it onstage at the end of a 1973 tour. To fans as well, Bowie's rapid transitions could feel like whiplash. In the space of five years he was a curly-haired folk singer; a Lauren Bacall look-alike in an evening gown; a vampiric creature with a red mullet, shaved eyebrows and a skintight, multicolored bodysuit; and a coked-up dandy in a tailored suit, suspenders, fedora and cane.

Some of these looks had alter egos associated with them, such as Ziggy Stardust, a fictional rock star who is ultimately ripped to pieces by his fans, or the Thin White Duke, a spectral, disaffected figure dressed impeccably in cabaret-style evening wear who throws "darts in lovers' eyes." As much curator as inventor, Bowie lifted melodic motifs from blues, funk and standards and presented them in such a way that many fans had no idea that the catchy "Starman" was a version of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" or that the melancholy "Life on Mars" was "My Way" in disguise. Other musical borrowings were more obvious, such as the opening bass line of "Jean Genie," taken from "I'm a Man," or the "On Broadway" reference at the end of the title track of the album "Aladdin Sane." Stardom gave Bowie his pick of talent.

He hand-selected virtuoso session players to help define each musical phase: Mick Ronson's guitar solos, Mike Garson's dissonant piano improv, Carlos Alomar's funky rhythms, and the techno sounds of guitarists Adrian Belew and Robert Fripp that permeated his work in the late '70s and set the stage for the European electronica of the 1980s. Bowie's voice was similarly labile - gliding between ragged cackle and haunting croon as he sang about decaying cities and alienated rock stars. Fellow musicians marveled at his ability to seduce a crowd with a look or a gesture. "He's the total artist," said Nicholas Godin of the duo Air. "The look, the voice, the talent to compose, the stage presence. The beauty. Nobody is like that anymore. Everybody is reachable; he was unreachable." David Robert Jones was born on Jan. 8, 1947, in Brixton, a working-class south London neighborhood scarred by World War II bomb blasts. His father, a publicist for a children's charity, was a failed music hall impresario; his mother was a former waitress and model.

An older half-brother, Terry, was diagnosed with schizophrenia and institutionalized when Bowie was a young man. For many years the rock star worried about his own mental health, and the theme of insanity runs through his early songs. "I used to wonder about my eccentricities, my wanting to explore and put myself in dangerous situations, psychically," he told Esquire magazine in 1993. "I was scared stiff that I was mad, that the reason I was getting away with it was that I was an artist, so people never knew I was totally bonkers." His family moved to the middle-class suburb of Bromley, where young David attended Bromley Technical High School and found a mentor in art teacher Owen Frampton, father of the future pop star Peter. At 14, in a fight with a friend over a girl, David was punched in the eye, resulting in a permanently dilated left pupil that would add to the otherworldly appearance he would later cultivate. After a few lessons on a plastic saxophone purchased on a payment plan, he began playing in local bands, finding that he liked singing and the female adulation that came with it.

To avoid confusion with Davy Jones of the Monkees, he renamed himself after the 19th-century American frontiersman and the hunting knife associated with him. Fascinated by musical theater, Bowie joined a mime troupe led by the dancer (and, briefly, his lover) Lindsay Kemp, who taught him the extravagant, stylized movements he would later bring into his own stage performances. Although his first two albums received little notice, in 1969 Bowie had his first hit single with "Space Oddity," with its famous lyric "Ground control to Major Tom," about a disaffected astronaut who decides to remain "sitting in my tin can, far above the world," rather than return to life on Earth. Released five days before the Apollo 11 launch, it reached No. 5 in Britain. That year he also met Angela Barnett, with whom he would enter into a 10-year marriage and have a son, Duncan Zowie Haywood Jones, born in 1971.

A shrewd manager of her husband's early career, Barnett tolerated his blatant philandering and gave him the spiky-on-top, long-in-the-back haircut that would become his signature look through the early 1970s. The hairdo - and the accompanying glittery bodysuits, platform boots and face paint - was intended as a statement against the peace-and-love, denim-clad hippie imagery dominating rock culture at the time. Bowie instead presented fans with cut-and-paste lyrics about the end of the world, and shocked them by dropping to his knees to perform mock fellatio on Ronson's electric guitar or telling an interviewer he was bisexual (though he would later say that was just an experimental phase). "We wanted to manufacture a new kind of vocabulary," Bowie told NPR's Terry Gross in 2003. "And so the so-called gender-bending, the picking up of maybe aspects of the avant garde and aspects of, for me personally, of things like the Kabuki theater in Japan and German expressionist movies, and poetry by Baudelaire . . .

it was a pudding of new ideas, and we were terribly excited, and I think we took it on our shoulders the idea that we were creating the 21st century in 1971." His ever-changing, outrageous personae also served to mask the painful shyness and insecurity of his younger years. "I didn't really have the nerve to sing my songs onstage," he told Musician magazine in 1983. Referring to the various personae, he said: "I decided to do them in disguise so that I didn't have to actually go through the humiliation of going onstage and being myself. I continued designing characters with their own complete personalities and environments. I put them into interviews with me! Rather than be me - which must be incredibly boring to anyone - I'd take Ziggy in, or Aladdin Sane or the Thin White Duke. It was a very strange thing to do." Along with his own music, he promoted the careers of lesser-known musicians such as Iggy Pop, Lou Reed and Mott the Hoople, whose signature hit, "All the Young Dudes," was written by Bowie.

In 1974 he moved to Los Angeles, whose hyped-up, drugged-out music scene - the "Fame" and "Fascination" immortalized on his album "Young Americans" - took a toll. Extensive cocaine use made him jittery and paranoid, even as it enabled him to be creatively prolific. Seeking calm and anonymity, Bowie spent much of the late 1970s in West Berlin, where in collaboration with Brian Eno he produced three albums that experimented with ambient sound and presaged the synthesizer-heavy music of the 1980s. Returning to live in New York City, he began expanding his range as an actor. Having starred in the 1976 Nicholas Roeg film "The Man Who Fell to Earth," in 1980 he played the lead in a stage production of "The Elephant Man," for which Variety praised his "charismatic personality . . . suggesting springs of passion beneath the severe physical handicaps of the character." In both roles he played sensitive freaks misunderstood by the society around them, a theme that had also permeated much of his music.

He also starred in "Just a Gigolo" with Marlene Dietrich (1978), in the Tony Scott vampire film "The Hunger" with Catherine Deneuve (1983) and as a rebellious prisoner of war in "Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence" (also 1983). Bowie's commercial musical pinnacle also came in 1983, with the blockbuster album "Let's Dance." It blasted him into international superstardom, though critics complained that it lacked the depth of his earlier work. Its unexpected success threw Bowie into a creative tailspin. Having planned to follow it with more esoteric material, he instead tried to duplicate the "Let's Dance" success with albums that were critical flops. "I suddenly felt very apart from my audience," he told Live magazine in 1997. "And it was depressing, because I didn't know what they wanted." Bowie regularly released albums through the 1980s and 1990s, although none approached the success of his previous output. But he continued to innovate, in 1996 becoming the first musician of his stature to release a song, "Telling Lies," exclusively via the Internet.

He caused a sensation when he was the first to sell asset-backed bonds, known in his case as "Bowie bonds" and acquired by Prudential, tied to the royalties on his back catalog. By the eve of the century he had once aspired to create, Bowie seemed to be finally settling down. He fell in love - a condition his younger self had pooh-poohed - with the model Iman Abdulmajid, whom he married in 1992 and with whom he had a daughter, Alexandria Zahra Jones, in 2000. After suffering a heart attack backstage during a tour in 2004, he stopped producing albums or touring for nearly a decade, devoting himself to family life. He even got his vulpine teeth capped, to the disappointment of some fans. But in 2013, the same year an elaborate retrospective of his visual legacy began touring the world, the 66-year-old Bowie released a new album, recorded in secret, called "The Next Day." His first album in a decade and the 24th of his career, it was praised by critics, who called it innovative even as it hearkened back to his early music.

That Bowie was still reinventing himself in his seventh decade could not have surprised those who knew him. "David's a real living Renaissance figure," Roeg told Time magazine in 1983. "That's what makes him spectacular. He goes away and re-emerges bigger than before. He doesn't have a fashion, he's just constantly expanding.

It's the world that has to stop occasionally and say, 'My God, he's still going on.' " Subscribe to our Morning News newsletter David Bowie dies of cancer at 69: 'He gave us magic for a lifetime' | Music | The Guardian David Bowie David Bowie dies of cancer at 69: 'He gave us magic for a lifetime' The legendary musician known for musical innovation and experimentation with his image died 18 months after being diagnosed with cancer Caroline Davies in London and Edward Helmore in New York Monday 11 January 2016 03.55 EST First published on Monday 11 January 2016 02.04 EST Close This article is 1 year old David Bowie , the iconic rock star whose career spanned more than half a century and whose influence transcended music, fashion and sexuality, has died aged 69. The singer’s death was confirmed in a Facebook post on his official page: “David Bowie died peacefully today surrounded by his family after a courageous 18-month battle with cancer.

While many of you will share in this loss, we ask that you respect the family’s privacy during their time of grief.” Writing on Twitter , Bowie’s son, the film director Duncan Jones, 44, said: “Very sorry and sad to say it’s true.” The news came as a shock to some, who were initially sceptical, but Bowie’s publicist, Steve Martin, told the Reuters news agency: “It’s not a hoax.” Duncan Jones (@ManMadeMoon) Very sorry and sad to say it's true. I'll be offline for a while. Love to all. pic.twitter.com/Kh2fq3tf9m January 11, 2016 Bowie’s 25 albums produced a string of hits including Changes, Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes. He was known for experimenting across diverse musical genres, and for his alter egos Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane and the Thin White Duke. He also had a notable acting career. His latest album, Blackstar, was released last week to coincide with his 69th birthday, and had received widespread critical acclaim.

Blackstar was the first Bowie release not to feature a picture of him on the cover: instead, a stylised black star heralded a darker work. On re-examination, there is much in Blackstar to suggest Bowie was saying goodbye, particularly in Lazarus, and the video for the title track, which opens with the image of a dead spaceman . Lazarus video from Blackstar album Tributes were paid on social media. In a heartfelt Facebook post, Tony Visconti, who produced a series of Bowie’s albums, including Young Americans and his seminal Berlin trilogy, Low, Heroes and Lodger, wrote: “He always did what he wanted to do. And he wanted to do it his way and he wanted to do it the best way. His death was no different from his life – a work of art. David Bowie: the man who thrilled the world Read more “He made Blackstar for us, his parting gift. I knew for a year this was the way it would be. I wasn’t, however, prepared for it. He was an extraordinary man, full of love and life. He will always be with us.

For now, it is appropriate to cry.” An hour after the news broke, fans began to gather near his apartment on Lafayette Street in the Soho district of New York. The first, Kate Corman, left a candle and flowers. “First Lou Reed, now David Bowie. It’s so sad. Unbelievable. New York is really over now,” she said. ‎At Puckfair, a bar across the street from Bowie’s apartment andfrequented by the singer, the barman played a string of his hits – Jean Genie, Let’s Dance and Heroes. “It’s hard to put into words what he gave us in his songs,” said late-night drinker Bill Marlborough. “If you don’t feel it, I can’t explain.” Pinterest Flowers are laid at the entrance to Bowie’s apartment building in Soho, New York. Photograph: Louis Lanzano/AFP/Getty Images Flowers and tributes were also laid at a mural on a wall in Brixton, south London, where the singer was born, and a candle was placed outside a property in Stansfield Road, thought to be his childhood home. Bowie had been absent from public view for a decade.

After a heart attack while touring in 2004 there were only a few low-key live appearances – his last at a charity show in New York in 2006 when he performed alongside Alicia Keys – and an acting role in the film The Prestige the same year. He was said to sit quietly in his apartment, or at the house in upstate New York near Woodstock, which he purchased with the supermodel Iman, whom he married in 1992 and with whom he had a daughter, Alexandria, 15. Paul Trynka, his biographer, told the Press Association the decade between his 23rd album Reality in 2003 and The Next Day in 2013 gave Bowie time to be “a family man”. “He walked Lexi [his daughter] to school every day – something he had missed with Duncan [his son] which was something he deeply regretted”. Ricky Gervais, the comedian and actor who convinced the famously private Bowie to star as himself in an episode of the 2006 sitcom Extras, wrote: “ I just lost a hero. RIP David Bowie ”.

The rock guitarist Joel Madden, quoting Changes, wrote simply: “ Turn and face the strange ”. The rapper Kanye West said : “David Bowie was one of my most important inspirations, so fearless, so creative, he gave us magic for a lifetime.” Mick Jagger said: “David was always an inspiration to me and a true original. He was wonderfully shameless in his work. We had so many good times together ... He was my friend. I will never forget him.” Bowie was born David Robert Jones on 8 January 1947 in Brixton, south London, to mother Margaret “Peggy”, a waitress, and charity worker Haywood “John” Jones. His older brother’s record collection introduced him to rock music at an early age. Pinterest David Bowie at the Theatre Workshop in New York to attend the premiere of the musical Lazarus. Photograph: BR/Dana Press/PA The family moved to south-east London and he graduated from Bromley technical high school at 16, when he was busy forming a number of bands and leading a group. He called himself Davy Jones, later changing his name to David Bowie to avoid confusion with Davy Jones of The Monkees.

The name was reportedly inspired by a knife developed by the 19th century American pioneer Jim Bowie. He released three singles as a solo artist for Pye Records, and a debut album David Bowie, but did not achieve huge success and retreated to a Buddhist monastery in Scotland in 1967. After returning to London he started the arts troupe Feathers in 1968, then helped organise the Free Festival, a day-long free music event in Beckenham, southeast London, in 1969. That same year he released Space Oddity, which went on to be his first UK No 1. The release the following year of The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars made him an international star, and he conquered the US with his theatrical stage show. He produced albums for Lou Reed and Iggy Pop, as well as writing All the Young Dudes, which he gave to Mott The Hoople who had a massive hit with it. In the late 1970s he produced a three-album collaboration with Brian Eno, known as the Berlin trilogy.

Pinterest David Bowie pictured with a fan in the 1970s, in his Ziggy Stardust phase. Photograph: Michael Ochs/Corbis Bowie combined his rock career with appearances in films. His acting career took off with his performance in Nicolas Roeg’s The Man Who Fell to Earth, followed by roles in films such as Labyrinth, The Last Temptation of Christ and Absolute Beginners. More recently, he appeared as himself in the film Zoolander. Bowie officially retired Ziggy Stardust in 1973, making the announcement during a London gig. But the hits kept coming, with albums including Aladdin Sane, Diamond Dogs and Pin Ups. He changed direction with the soul-inspired Young Americans. His first US No 1 was a collaboration with John Lennon on Fame, which topped the charts in 1975. He continued to sell millions of albums and pack out stadiums with the rise of the New Romantic scene in 1980s Britain. He embraced pop, finding chart success with songs such as Let’s Dance and Queen collaboration Under Pressure. Pinterest David Bowie performing as Ziggy Stardust at Radio City Music Hall in February 1973.

Photograph: Neal Preston/Corbis Friend and collaborator Iggy Pop described him on social media as “the light of my life”, while singer Madonna tweeted: “Talented. Unique. Genius. Game Changer”. The Rolling Stones hailed his as “an extraordinary artist and a true original”. The rock group Queen, with whom he collaborated on Under Pressure, tweeted a link to the video of the song, with the words: “This is our last dance....” Prime minister David Cameron, speaking on an engagement in north London, said: “Musically, creatively, artistically David Bowie was a genius”. Bowie once said that he was bisexual, although he later suggested that his sexual interactions with men should be seen in the context of his wider cultural experimentation. “I was always a closet heterosexual,” he told Rolling Stone magazine in 1993. In 1970 he married Angie Bowie, and the couple had a son named Zowie Bowie, now known as Duncan Jones. They split in 1980. He settled in New York one year after marrying Iman.

Bowie continued to record and tour until 2003, when he released Reality, his 23rd album, which many assumed to be his last. “I am not a natural performer,” Bowie said in a rare interview in 2002. “I don’t enjoy performing terribly much. Never have. I can do it and, if my mind’s on the situation, do it quite well. But, five or six shows in, I’m dying to get off the road and go back to the studio.” In the same interview, he said: “My entire career, I’ve only really worked with the same subject matter. The trousers may change, but the actual words and subjects I’ve always chosen to write with are things to do with isolation, abandonment, fear and anxiety, all of the high points of one’s life.” Friends and collaborators recall singer’s last interactions with them amid a re-examination of Blackstar, his final work Published: 11 Jan 2016 From glam to neo-soul to his mysterious final album, David Bowie remained one step ahead throughout a prophetic career that pushed sexual and social boundaries.

Alexis Petridis salutes a brilliant enigma Published: 11 Jan 2016 From suburban London schoolboy to a musical colossus, snapshots of David Bowie’s kaleidoscopic life Published: 11 Jan 2016 From Aladdin Sane’s jumpsuit to the Thin White Duke’s suits, Bowie’s distinctive outfits have influenced designers from Jean Paul Gaultier to Hedi Slimane Published: 11 Jan 2016 David Bowie: The legendary singer in numbers - Telegraph Music news David Bowie: The legendary singer in numbers The world has been shocked by the death of David Bowie - a man whose success is proven by the numbers that relate to his career Comments David Bowie was born in Brixton in 1947, began singing with his first band at the age of 15, and died aged 69 on 11 January 2016 . Over his 40 year career, Bowie produced 27 studio albums, starred in 27 films and released over 100 singles.

While his first single was called Liza Jane, performed as David Jones with the King Bees, it wasn't until 1969's Space Oddity that Bowie shot to fame. Following this, the star's albums included hits such as Heroes, Let's Dance and The Next Day. He has won two Brit awarts, sold seven million copies of Let's Dance and had an estimated 140 million worldwide record sales - enough to make him one of the top 10 biggest-selling UK artists of all time. Bowie's albums and their peaks on the UK charts Album details The Man Who Sold the World 26 Rise & Fall of Ziggy Stardust 5 Hundreds of songs contributing to a net worth of $230 Million Bowie released 120 singles over his career - his last being Lazarus in 2015. 61 of these singles got into the UK top 40 chart. Five reached number one , with the singer spending a total of 13 weeks at number one. Bowie's UK number one singles Weeks Dancing in the Street (with Mick Jagger) 4 His most prolific years were 1974, 1997 and 2013.

He released six singles in each of these years. Overall, he released the most singles in the 1970s, with 37 releases. Bowie has had platinum hits in every decade since the 1970s - with Hunky Dory being his first platinum album. Since then, he has inspired musicians in genres from punk to electronica. He spent 599 weeks in the UK's top 40 album chart. The star created hundreds of works of art over his 40 year career Nine of his albums reached number one in the UK - even though none one of them reached the top spot in the US. The most recent of these was The Next Day in March 2013. Bowie's musical career has also seen 58 music videos and 13 video albums. Bowie's albums: A breakdown 1 Taking on the role of seven musical personas Over his career, chameleonic Bowie took on many different personas for his performances , from his captivating alter egos to his various acting roles. His transformations led to the birth of at least seven musical personas, including Major Tom, Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane.

David Bowie as one of his most famous personas, Ziggy Stardust One of the most famous of these was Ziggy Stardust , Bowie's androgynous alter ego who first appeared in 1972. With a striking costume and his hair dyed red, Ziggy Stardust was able to dominate the glam rock era with the album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars . 20 Rarely-Seen Photos of David Bowie - artnet News Mick Rock, David Bowie and Mick Ronson (ca. 1972). Photo: Artnet. Terry O’Neill, Elizabeth Taylor / David Bowie, 1974 (1974). Photo: Artnet. Ron Galella, David Bowie, Art Garfunkel, Paul Simon, Yoko Ono, John Lennon, and Roberta Flack at the Grammy Awards, New York, 1975. Photo: Artnet. Mick Rock, David Bowie 1973. Photo: Frank Pictures Gallery. Mick Rock, David Bowie 9173. Photo: Frank Pictures Gallery. David Bowie’s mugshot. Photo: Open Culture.

February 1970: Pop singer David Bowie at the ‘Disc and Music Echo’ Valentine Awards ceremony at the Cafe Royal in London. Photo: Hulton Archive/Getty Images. 9th May 1973: Pop phenomenon David Bowie, sporting a stripy jacket with wide lapels, visits comedy duo Peter Cook (1937 – 1995), and Dudley Moore (1935 – 2002) backstage at the Cambridge Theatre in London, following the pair’s show ‘Behind The Fridge’. David is to appear at Earl’s Court on Saturday, the first date of his British tour. Photo: Keystone/Getty Images. NEW YORK, NY – SEPTEMBER 26: Rock legend David Bowie autographs copies of his newest album “Outside” at the grand opening of a Herald Square music store 26 September in New York. Bowie will appear in concert 27 and 28 September at the Meadowlands Stadium as part of his tour with the new album. AFP PHOTO. Photo: JON LEVY/AFP/Getty Images. David Bowie and Iman. Photo: Diane Freed.

David Bowie arrives for the 11th Annual Tibet House Benefit Concert February 26, 2001 at Carnegie Hall in New York City. Photo: George De Sota/Newsmakers. 17th May 1971: English pop star David Bowie with singer Dana Gillespie. Photo: Michael Stroud/Express/Getty Images. British rock singer David Bowie wears his costume and makeup as ‘Ziggy Stardust,’ standing backstage beside his makeup artist Pierre Laroche, 1973. Photo: Express Newspapers/Getty Images. David Bowie performing in his ‘Angel of Death’ costume at a live recording for a Midnight Special TV show made at The Marquee Club in London to a specially invited audience of Bowie fanclub members, 20th October 1973. (\ Photo: Jack Kay/Express/Getty Images. British singer and actor David Bowie attends the Cannes International Film Festival on May 1978. AFP PHOTO Photo: AFP/Getty Images. British rock singer and actor David Bowie walks at Heathrow Airport, wearing a suit and sweater and holding his coat, before embarking on a tour of America and Canada, London, England, March 16, 1978.

Photo: Express Newspapers/Getty Images. David Bowie dies at 69 after cancer battle David Bowie dies at 69 after cancer battle The British glam-rocker leaves behind a lasting legacy of vibrant pop hits and personas. Post to Facebook David Bowie dies at 69 after cancer battle The British glam-rocker leaves behind a lasting legacy of vibrant pop hits and personas. Check out this story on USATODAY.com: CancelSend A link has been sent to your friend's email address. Posted! A link has been posted to your Facebook feed. 157 To find out more about Facebook commenting please read the Conversation Guidelines and FAQs David Bowie dies at 69 after cancer battle Patrick Ryan , USA TODAY 1:01 p.m. EST January 11, 2016 x Share The legendary David Bowie lost his battle to cancer just days after his 69th birthday. Here are 5 facts about the musician that might surprise you. VPC David Bowie's career has spanned nearly 50 years. (Photo: Jimmy King) Legendary singer David Bowie has died at 69, his son, Duncan Jones, tweeted.

"Very sorry and sad to say it's true," Jones, 44, wrote on Twitter late Sunday night. "I'll be offline for a while. Love to all." A statement on the musician's official website read: "David Bowie died peacefully today surrounded by his family after a courageous 18-month battle with cancer. While many of you will share in this loss, we ask that you respect the family’s privacy during their time of grief." Appreciation: David Bowie, a man of many ch-ch-changes His representative, Steve Martin, said that Bowie died "peacefully" and was surrounded by family, according to the Associated Press. No more details were provided. The Associated Press, the Daily Mail and other British media reported that Bowie died following a secret battle with cancer, although the type was not specified. His last music video, Lazarus, was released Thursday and seemed to provide a haunting image of what was to come; Bowie in a hospital bed, his eyes bandaged, the lyrics beginning with the line, "Look up here, I'm in heaven." An off-Broadway musical, also called Lazarus and based on Bowie's music, premiered last month in New York. Was David Bowie wishing fans goodbye on 'Blackstar'?

Bowie turned 69 on Friday, the same day he released a new album called Blackstar, which earned rave reviews . It was the 25th album from the glam-rock icon, who was born David Jones in South London on Jan. 8, 1947. He took up saxophone when he was 12 years old and played with a slew of bands after high school, eventually changing his name to "Bowie" in order to avoid confusion with The Monkees' lead singer Davy Jones. He released his self-titled debut album in 1967, but didn't break out until two years later with Space Oddity, which is best remembered for introducting fictional astronaut character Major Tom. It was one of nearly two dozen songs that Bowie charted on Billboard's Hot 100 in his five-decade career (including No. 1 hits Let's Dance and John Lennon co-write Fame). Posted! A link has been posted to your Facebook feed. British music legend David Bowie has died. He was 69. He performs in Paris in this picture taken on Sept. 24, 2002.

AFP/Getty Images Bowie performs at Radio City Music Hall in New York in 1974. The innovative and iconic singer whose illustrious career lasted five decades died Jan. 11, 2016, after battling cancer for 18 months. Suzanne Vlamis, AP Bowie is seen off at the train station by his first wife, Angie, on July 9, 1973. The couple have one child together. Smith/Express/Getty Images Fullscreen Bowie is featured in an album cover shoot for "Aladdin Sane," 1973. The singer helped to usher in the androgynous look in the 1970s in the persona of Ziggy Stardust. He was one of the first British musicians in the '70s to announce that he was bi-sexual. Brian Duffy, The David Bowie Archive Candy Clark and David Bowie in a scene from the motion picture "The Man Who Fell to Earth" in 1976. The Kobal Collection David Bowie is model-handsome during a press conference at the 36th Cannes Film Festival on May 13, 1983.

Ralph Gatti, AFP/Getty Images Bowie, right, played the role of Andy Warhol with Jeffrey Wright as artist Jean-Michel Basquiat in Julian Schnabel's 1996 film "Basquiat." Miramax Films Fullscreen Bowie performs on Oct. 14, 1997. Ever the innovator, on July 20, 1998, Bowie announced he'd launch his own Internet service provider, BowieNet, at a cost of $19.95 a month. BowieNet would offer high-speed Internet service across North America and expand worldwide later in the year. Kevin Mazur, MTV via AP Super model Iman married David Bowie on June 6, 1992. They have one child. They're seen in this June 3, 2002 file photo. AP Bowie receives his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Feb. 12, 1997. DMI Bathed in light, David Bowie performs during a concert in Kristiansand, Norway, on July 3, 2002.

Heiko Junge, EPA Japanese fashion designer Kansai Yamamoto created this costume used by Bowie on the "Aladdin Sane" tour. It is displayed during an exhibit dedicated to the British singer at the Philarmonie in Paris on Feb. 21, 2015. Miguel Medina, AFP/Getty Images Fullscreen David Bowie as Ziggy Stardust. The show was launched on Feb. 10, 1972, and catapulted the singer to stardom. The 30th anniversary edition of "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars" was released as a 2-CD set that includes a 36-page booklet with photos and a timeline from the era. None Andy Serkis, left, David Bowie and Hugh Jackman star in the 2006 motion picture "The Prestige." Touchstone Pictures/Warner Bros. Pictures Bowie "Dancing In the Street" with Mick Jagger. Ken Barnes collection The Bowie mystique is still strong. Train passengers take in the "Virtual Bowie Coupe" exhibit of the singer's life on the train from Zwolle to Groningen in The Netherlands Jan.8, 2015.

Remko De Waal, EPA Bowie's new album, "Blackstar," is displayed during the "David Bowie Is" exhibit at the museum shop of the Groninger Museum in The Netherlands. The album was released on Jan. 8, 2016, the artist's 69th birthday. Vincent Jannink, EPA Like this topic? You may also like these photo galleries: Replay David Bowie: his many faces - Telegraph David Bowie: his many faces Just how many personas David Bowie's adopted truly boggles the mind The cover of David Bowie's 1973 album 'Aladdin Sane' Photo: DUFFY David as the Jean Genie Photo: Image Courtesy of Virgin Records US/EMI Image 1 of 4 David Bowie in a still from the video for 'Boys Keep Swinging' Photo: Image Courtesy of Virgin Records US/EMI LEFT: David Bowie at the Beeb and RIGHT: as Ziggy Stardust: Photo: BBC / 5:21PM BST 06 May 2011 David Bowie adopted, evolved and cast off a multitude of personas.

Here are five of the best: Arnold Corns – something of ‘art art school side project’, Bowie collaborated with the students from Dulwich College under the guise of Arnold Corns in 1971. The name Arnold Corns was a play on the Pink Floyd song Arnold Layne. Bowie, at his acoustic/electric crossover, built the group with the idea of placing his Ziggy stylist, Freddie Buretti, on vocals. A challenging project, they released two singles to limited success and waned as a collective, wisely knocking it on the head in the mid-Seventies. Major Tom – Bowie’s fictional astronaut was by the same addictions as Bowie himself - an ambitious hedonist, all topics he lyrically covered during this period - but with the added bonus of being less of an alter-ego and more of a direct autobiographical persona. A precursor to the many rocket men of Bowie’s career. Ziggy Stardust – Perhaps his most famous incarnation: flame-haired, platform-booted and utterly fantastical, this was Bowie the sexually ambivalent demi-god; promiscuous and beholden to excess, much like the artist. Having trained in mime and cabaret, Bowie merged these disciplines into this highly influential character project.

His alien's rise and fall is charted on the eponymous album and he phased out this character towards the end of the decade. Aladdin Sane – Viewed by many as a character from his most productive period (the early Seventies onwards), Bowie described Aladdin Sane (a pun on A Lad Insane) as merely a development on his Ziggy Stardust character. Same red head, just sporting slightly more nonsensical, shiny garb, this was Ziggy as a bona fide rock star. Thin White Duke – the impeccably dressed, emaciated protagonist born out of Station to Station, showed Bowie's interest in cabaret. Developed at the starts of his Berlin residency this came at a time when he was allegedly subsisting on ‘red peppers and milk’ and who knows what else. Desensitised, amoral and of wavering sexual orientation, Bowie described the Duke as “a nasty character indeed.” David Bowie: The many faces of music's greatest chameleon By Yohana Desta and Proma Khosla 2016-01-11 17:40:01 UTC The man born David Jones was known by many names.

Rock star David Bowie, as he later christened himself, died Sunday at age 69, but has left behind a rich treasure trove of musical alter egos and personas. From Ziggy Stardust to the spacey Major Tom, here's the story behind Bowie's most famous characters. See also: David Bowie's endlessly surprising career in one spectacular GIF From David Jones to David Bowie When he was a teenager, young David Jones was an aspiring musician. But he because he didn't want people to confuse him with Davy Jones of the Monkees, he decided to use another last name professionally — Bowie. He was inspired by the knife created by Jim Bowie, because it "cuts both ways." "The name Bowie just appealed to me when I was younger," the musician said in 1974 . "I was into a kind of heavy philosophy thing when I was 16 years old, and I wanted a truism about cutting through the lies and all that." Ziggy Stardust The glam rock alien with a burst of red hair was created for the concept album Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars in 1972. Bowie was inspired by the artist the Legendary Stardust Cowboy.

"He was half out of sci-fi rock and half out of the Japanese theater," Bowie said of the character in 1988 . "The clothes were, at that time, simply outrageous … Nobody had seen anything like them before." The Thin White Duke The Thin White Duke was born in 1976, primarily for Bowie's album Station to Station. The character was heavily inspired by Bowie's character Thomas Jerome Newton in the film The Man Who Fell to Earth. He was a cold man and a sharp dresser, whom Bowie described as "a very Aryan fascist type — a would-be romantic with no emotions at all.” Bowie allegedly doesn't remember making Station to Station, because he spent that chunk of his life addicted to cocaine and living off of red peppers and milk . Aladdin Sane Aladdin Sane is perhaps Bowie's most instantly recognizable persona, with fiery red hair and a lightning bolt painted onto his face. The persona, created for the 1973 album of the same name, is a play on the words "a lad insane." Bowie nicknamed this album "Ziggy Goes to America," referencing his earlier character.

The lightning bolt was meant to represent schizophrenia, inspired by Bowie's older half-brother, who had been diagnosed with the brain disorder. Major Tom ’ Bowie created Major Tom for "Space Oddity" in 1969, the year of the first moon landing. Throughout the song, Major Tom describes his space adventures to Ground Control while he sits in “a tin can, far above the world.” It’s one of many songs that captures a connection between Bowie and stars or space; Major Tom became popular that “Space Oddity” was even sung aboard the International Space Station by astronaut Chris Hadfield in 2013. Jareth the Goblin King Even those who don't know much about Bowie are likely familiar with the artist’s foray into acting as Jareth the Goblin King in Labyrinth. Bowie donned the infamous Goblin King wig and transformed into this mysterious character who fascinates Sarah (Jennifer Connelly) as much as the viewer. The crowning achievement? “Magic Dance.” BONUS: 10 unforgettable David Bowie film appearances

Question: Which singer created the alter egos Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane?
Answer: DAVID BOWIE